EA Boss Rules Out Harmonix Acquisition

by Mike Bendel on November 30, 2010 @ 12:01 pm


With Rock Band dev Harmonix now up for sale from parent company Viacom, many outed EA as a potential buyer. Turns out, that’s not the case — as company boss John Riccitiello has told Bloomberg that EA has no intention of making a bid. EA is steering clear of larger acquisition attempts, with Riccitiello noting that the bulk of EA’s focus right now is centered on R&D, making current investments grow — especially those in the digital space.

Riccitiello equates the buyout of Harmonix to “catching a falling knife.”

“I’m sure some smart investor will buy the business feeling that they can catch a falling knife, but more people have been cut trying to catch falling knives than have benefitted from getting the timing exactly right.”

EA isn’t completely taking acquisitions off its road map, however. Riccitiello notes that smaller players are being considered. “There are probably 25 companies on our radar that would make sense for us at somewhere between 5 and 10 percent of the asking price,” he noted.

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Comments
Joey says:

They just closed a bunch of studios, soooooo... Yeah, makes sense.

Josey Wales says:

Personally, as much as I love to play Rock Band and music coordination type of games, I dont feel like the market is as strong as it once was for them. Now considering the instruments used for the game cost more than the game itself makes me feel like Rock Band 3 certainly isnt breaking any records for their sales.

Buying a studio that specializes in one thing is never a smart move and I think Viacom realized that in some way.

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